Author
Topic: C5 in RIDER magazine (Read 1839 times)

Hello all,Haven't checked in for a while but I saw something that didn't make sense. Just bought the July 2010 Rider magazine. It's one of four bikes in a feature called Retro Rides. Didn't have a problem with the review, per se, but the MILEAGE they got was horrid! 45mpg! I thought they got way more than that. Heck, the Guzzi 750 came in second with 42.4. They worst was the Triumph Scrambler with 38. I know magazine riders must thrash the crap out of them but 45? Does this square with anybody's experience or can Rider's staff not do math?

Thanks, guys. That's more like what I thought. At least RE got some great exposure. And it really was a good (if short) writeup.

About the Harley, I think the Motor Company is on a campaign to reduce a good bike to an expensive lawn decoration and they get closer with each new model. It DOES look good but it's functionally a mistake. A terrible ride and an extremely short range - one would be better off with a scooter.

The new "48", in my humble opinion, looks great, but isn't made for the type of riding I enjoy. The shortened suspension means scraping in any kind of spirited cornering. That's why, when I decided to buy another Sportster (I do work in a Harley-Davidson dealership after all) I chose a nice used 2006 XL883 standard model.This was the last year for carberated Sportsters and this bike has the mid controls and full length suspension.I purposely did not want a fuel injected model, and actually would have liked a pre-2004 model due to those years being much lighter in weight, and having the trap door transmission. My bike doesn't scrape (yet) going around corners pushing things a bit, and it doesn't have all that crap shoved up into the gas tank for the FI system.

The smaller gas tank on the 48 will mean considerably lees cruising range between fill ups. But HD is going to sell a bunch of these I think, just like the Nightster and the Iron model.

I'm with ya. My favorites were the XL1200R, the XL883R, and then the XL883 (like I have). I do like the XR1200 that came out in Europe first, but I'm hearing rumors that it will be dropped too. That will leave us with the Nightser,Iron,48,XL1200C,XL1200L and I think the XL883L. How about something along these lines:

The new "48", in my humble opinion, looks great, but isn't made for the type of riding I enjoy. The shortened suspension means scraping in any kind of spirited cornering. That's why, when I decided to buy another Sportster (I do work in a Harley-Davidson dealership after all) I chose a nice used 2006 XL883 standard model.This was the last year for carberated Sportsters and this bike has the mid controls and full length suspension.I purposely did not want a fuel injected model, and actually would have liked a pre-2004 model due to those years being much lighter in weight, and having the trap door transmission. My bike doesn't scrape (yet) going around corners pushing things a bit, and it doesn't have all that crap shoved up into the gas tank for the FI system.

The smaller gas tank on the 48 will mean considerably lees cruising range between fill ups. But HD is going to sell a bunch of these I think, just like the Nightster and the Iron model.